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OnePlus 5G Open Course Part 3: Behind the Scenes
Apr 11, 2019

We hope you enjoyed the second part of our 5G Open Course series. If you missed it, you can find it here.

In part 3, we’re going to look at what's involved in putting 5G into the hands of consumers.

Each generation of mobile networks brings great new improvements, but also great challenges for network providers and device manufacturers. Launching a new-generation network is a very difficult, expensive, and long process for network providers. At the same time, creating new devices that support new-generation networks is also a lot of hard work for device manufacturers.

Let’s take a look at some of the biggest obstacles that both network providers and device manufacturers are facing as we head into the 5G era.

Network providers

Spectrum licensing

When a new mobile generation comes about, network providers must buy the rights to use the radio frequencies the new technology uses. Network providers pay crazy amounts of money for these frequencies, known as “spectrum”. In the UK, for example, a total of £1.356 billion ($1.77 billion) was paid to the UK government by the four main network providers for the rights to use the nation's 5G spectrum. Network providers must pay these huge fees even before their new networks exist, making spectrum licensing one of the biggest financial costs when it comes to creating a new-generation network.

Network hardware

Because 5G uses different types of radio waves than 4G networks, new cell stations must be built. 5G cell stations also must be closer together than 4G stations to work as well, meaning that a bigger number of cell stations are needed to build a comparatively sized 5G network. This is because 5G radio waves have a shorter range than 4G radio waves. Building a new network is extremely expensive (think several billions of dollars), but there are also many factors that make launching a new network really complicated. Things such as government zoning regulations mean that network providers need to find inventive ways to build their networks and make sure that they work properly. At the same time, providers must ensure they’re offering the best service they can to their customers, so a fine balance must be struck in order to make everyone happy.

Device manufacturers

Product design:

Most of us don’t spend a lot of time thinking about what’s inside our phone – as long as it looks good and works, that’s all most of us care about. But the inside of a smartphone – or nearly any other technology product – is a true work of art. Engineers and designers spend months carefully calculating and testing every single component inside a smartphone. Every part must work together, and everything must fit safely into a tiny space. With 5G smartphones containing new hardware – a 5G radio and antennas – this creates a whole new challenge. The product must work as well as 4G products (battery life, performance, etc.) while also retaining a similar size. This new equipment means that extra effort is needed to make sure that the size, performance and efficiency of new devices live up to customers’ expectations.

Research costs

As 5G is an emerging technology, a lot of research and testing is needed by manufacturers to make sure that their products work on 5G networks around the world. There are several 5G frequencies, with different countries using different ones. This means that when creating a 5G phone, manufacturers must test the 5G signal on every single frequency to make sure they all perform as well as each other. This takes a lot of time and patience. What’s more, if a certain frequency doesn’t perform well enough, engineers must work to fix this problem before the product is ready to be released. Research into many other areas – such as how the 5G radio affects heat, battery life, processor performance, etc. - is also vital before a product can be released.

We hope you enjoyed the third part of our 5G Open Course series. Want to show us what you've learned? We've prepared a quick quiz for you. Any member who completes every 5G Open Course quiz will be awarded with an exclusive OnePlus 5G Scholar badge. What's more, if you're skilled enough to score 100% on every quiz in the series, you'll receive an awesome OnePlus 5G Scholar E-Certificate! Click here to take part. Clue: All the answers are contained in this post

Never Settle

P.S. Voting is now open for our 5G Apps of Tomorrow program. Help shape the future of 5G by choosing your favorite ideas here.

Want to show us what you've learned? We've prepared a quick quiz for you. Any member who completes every 5G Open Course quiz will be awarded with an exclusive OnePlus 5G Scholar badge. What's more, if you're skilled enough to score 100% on every quiz in the series, you'll receive an awesome OnePlus 5G Scholar E-Certificate! Click here to take part. Clue: All the answers are contained in this post

yes I do. The we numerous toxicology tests carried out and the is no evidence that birds were poisoned, ill or anything.

The is no direct evidence that 5G or LTE 4G technology was the cause.

But taking under consideration all circumstances, traces and such, one might believe that untraceable source could be the cause. Out of all sources mentioned around the Internet the wireless transmitters seem like most probable cause.